My journey from a technical and strict discipline of forensic and composite art to fine art. I'm trying to unfurl my wings to fly into this new field but I'm still struggling to get out of my cocoon!
"To be an artist is to believe in life."
-Henry Moore (1898-1986)

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Another Composite / Sexual Assault

Okay, so I'm "copping" out by posting another piece from the past because I don't have anything completed to post today.

This man attacked a woman while she walked alone along a relatively desolate street in a neighboring city. He tackled her from behind, threw her into a clump of bushes to sexually assault her.

What I always have is deep admiration for a victim willing to force herself to revisit that event in order to help the police catch the guy and prevent him from doing the same to others. It is not a pleasant experience and we both are emotionally drained after the session.

As you may or may not know there are people who chose not to help with a composite. I found that the most reluctant were not sexual assault victims but bank robbery tellers. For some reason tellers were most reluctant to sit and provide a description when cameras had failed during the hold-up. Most cited that they were afraid of retaliation [ which never occurred during my 26 years experience] and trauma from the incident.

8 comments:

Indeed, interesting...and I imagine traumatic at times. 26 years? I didn't know they allowed 10 year olds on the police force. And what a coincidence...your drawing looks just like that guy in the photo.

I'm always affraid that i would easily forget because of trauma, how the man or woman would look like... well maybe if it was a woman i would remember easier lol yeh i know that joke was lame. lol So i'm guessing you guys got him?

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About Me

I was born in San Francisco but my father moved me and my mom to Japan when I was 11 months old. There he helped set up the new Army HDQRS after WWII. I stayed in Japan until I was 18 and moved back to California to attend college. I have lived in several cities in the Bay Area since then. I was a police officer for 26 years retiring as a Sergeant a few years ago. I was pretty successful as a Forensic Artist and the composite drawings I used to do to help catch crooks and other bad folks. Now that I'm retired, I am trying to catch up and access all that fun and fine art I've missed out on. After seeing all that darkness, I always look for the light in people and situations.